Turkiye's central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5 per cent on Thursday, carrying out its first rate cut in nearly two years as it tries to control soaring inflation. Citing slowing inflation, the bank's Monetary Policy Committee said it was reducing its one-week repo rate to 47.5 per cent from the current 50 per cent. The committee said in a statement that the overall inflation trend was flat in November and that indicators suggest it is likely to decline in December. Demand within the country was slowing, helping to reduce inflation, it said. Inflation in Turkey surged in recent years due to declining foreign reserves and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's unconventional economic policy of lowering rates as a way to tame inflation which he later abandoned. Inflation stood at 47 per cent in November, after having peaked at 85 per cent in late 2022, although independent economists say the real rate is much higher than the official figures. Most ..